It's Monday!

We had a pretty good day yesterday. Good crowds in all of our services... Several first time visitors... A good number of decisions made in worship services...

A few people to thank...

• Choir and Pastor Shawn for the great special just prior to the message in the 10:45 service.
• The Hatfield family for preparing a great meal for our church wide fellowship honoring our recent new members.
• The Dickover's for doing the coffee set-up for the 6:30 service.
• The preschool choir for kicking off the 5:00 service.

I am looking forward to this week!

• We've got a number of people already signed up for the new member's class on Wednesday at 6:30. (Give us a call if you would like to attend and are not yet on the list.)
  
• Today I hope to spend a few hours doing some preparation for my Easter Sunday message and the two messages that will follow.
• I have a few appointments this week with first time guests who have attended one of our services in the last couple of weeks.

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Let me share with you something I read in my devotion time this morning...

Part of my reading was from Joshua 22.

In verses 9 & 10 we learn that the men of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half-tribe of Manasseh left the other Israelites after the war to return to their land on the other side of the Jordan river.

On their way, they built an altar to the Lord.

This bothered the other Israelites because they thought that these men were trying to establish a new place of worship in violation of God's commands.

So the other Israelites decided to wage war against those who had built the new altar.

Just before the war ensued, the leaders decided to sit down and talk. As it turned out, each group had misunderstood the intentions of the others. Once everything was aired out it turned out that everyone agreed on everything!

What a great lesson! I wonder how many 'wars' have been fought between believers simply because we have misunderstood the intentions of others and we have let our pride keep us from sitting down and having a frank and honest discussion.

I pray that I will always have a heart that desires to talk first...

Pastor Noel

Prayer Requests...

Last week was a challenging week. It wasn't a bad week, just a challenging one. I had two very long days that I don't think I really ever recovered from, several counseling appointments a few of which were heart rending, one day trip to St. Louis, and a few distractions. Sunday was a good day. We had a good service in the morning; the deacons and I did our last day of one-at-a-time Lord's Suppers; and we had two good services in the evening.

I am looking forward to this week. It is starting off well. I got some very good news this morning that I believe is the Lord saying that this is going to be a good week of ministry, full steam ahead...

Here are some things to keep in your prayers...

• I have prospect visits lined up for Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Pray for these families.
  
• Donna and the girls and I are praying about doing our first big family mission trip this Summer. We are going to try to make a decision in the next couple of weeks. Donna is working on passports right now, just in case.
• So far this morning, we've had seven people sign up for our April 1 New Member's class! Pray that we will be able to make connections with all of those God is sending our way.
• We have a leadership meeting (council) this Wednesday where we will be considering some upgrades to our youth ministry.
• VBS meetings this week...
• We are making the last preparations for publicizing our Easter services this year. We have a very special presentation the Friday before Easter, and then we will offer our Easter worship service three times on Sunday.

Thanks for the Prayers!
Pastor Noel

Quick Update...

It has been a week or so since I've posted, so here is a quick update of what has been going on...

• In the past couple of weeks we've added six new members to our church in addition to six baptisms! It is great to see how God is working in people's lives and how our church has been able to be a part of that. It was also great to see the generations represented in the baptism time. Of the six we baptized the Sunday before last, one was in the 12-18 age group, one was in the 19-25 age group, two were in the 26-35 age group, and two were in the 60+ age group.

• I was able to make three prospect visit appointments following the morning worship and the Sunday Extra Worship yesterday! Thank the Lord for the opportunities for ministry that He has set before us.

• This coming Sunday will be the last day of our 'family at a time' Lord's Supper services. The original plan was to bring every interested family in one at a time for a time of prayer and worship through the Lord's Supper in one marathon day. Well, one day turned into two and now three. When it is all said and done I will have been able to pray with hundreds of people in family groups and share the Lord's Supper with them. This has turned into one the highlights of my ministry life.

• Things are progressing with bringing Scott Parry in and up to speed as our new administrator and ministry director. Tomorrow will be focused solely on that. Scott and I will be spending the day consulting with another church that has made a similar transition.

• Sunday Extra Worship... Last night was our second official week of our Sunday Extra Worship service (if you don't know, this is a repeat of our morning service that takes place on Sunday evenings at 6:30 in Harmon Hall). How is it going? So far, so good. Not counting children and children's workers, we had 48 in the service the first week and 58 in the service last night. We have several people who are completely new to our church attending. Keep on praying. Invite people you know who may be interested in a little more laid back service that takes place in the evening...

• The five staff wives spent this past weekend together at a Beth Moore conference for pastor's wives in Nashville. Sounds like they had a great time. I hope you will keep them in your prayers. They play such an important role in our church and often make thankless sacrifices that few people know about. Praise the Lord for the character and sweet spirit that each of those ladies possess.

Pastor Noel

Christmas is Here!

We had a great Christmas Celebration last night with our choir and drama team sharing their annual program.

It was so good to see so many new faces from our community join us for the time of worship. The gym was packed and we had to pull out a number of extra chairs to accommodate the crowd. I had the opportunity to meet a ton of new people and everyone had great things to say about the night.

Thanks for everyone who worked so hard to make last night what it was... from Pastor Shawn, to the singers, the drama team, the youth who set up the facility, to the fellowship team that prepared for the after-service fellowship... Great job!

Pastor Noel